A school of art had been established in Marseille in 1752 and in the early days it promoted the work of regional artists whose principal subjects were topographical views and portraiture. As early as 1786 the port had been recorded in a watercolour sketch by Jean-Jérôme Beaujean and it was not long after the opening of the railway line that Cassis started to be a motif for painters of the Provençal School.
Local artists discover its charms
Adolphe Monticelli (1824–1886) was a marseillaise of humble origin and he attended the École Municipale de Dessin in the city and continued his training in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts. His style can be described as Romantic and pre-Impressionistic, influenced by the Barbizon school and Delacroix. In 1870 he returned to Marseille and painted prolifically but financial success alluded him. He was friends with Paul Cézanne and they often painted together and his work was much admired by Vincent Van Gogh. His work is not without its detractors and his art is still subject to controversy and many see him as a minor figure in 19th century painting. During the 1880’s Cassis was the subject for several works including Port de Cassis, 1884. Many of his paintings are housed in the Fondation Monticelli at L’Estaque.
Athough not a local, having been born in Burgundy, Félix Ziem (1821–1911) moved to Marseille in 1839 where he received some informal instruction in painting from Monticelli. His hobby soon developed into a full-time career and his style follows that of the Barbizon School. He was much travelled and one of his favourite subjects was Venice which he visited regularly but for several years he lived and worked in Martigues just to the west of Marseille and today there is a museum there devoted to his works. It was during this period that he made several painting trips to Cassis.
Raphael Ponson (1835–1904) was born in Marseille and attended the art school there. He was an enthusiastic traveller in the region and many of his paintings are of marine subjects. He visited Cassis for almost thirty years from 1867 and captured the commercial activity of the busy port in many canvases including Le Port de Cassis (pictured here), Brick grec à Cassis and Le port et le Cap en majesté. The rocky inlets or calanques close to the town were another favourite subject.
Octave Gallian (1855–1918) was originally from Toulon but trained in Paris and is perhaps best known as a portraitist but his Port de Cassis of 1880 is an early depiction of the busy harbour.
Joseph Garibaldi (1863–1941) was very definately a local artist, living and working in Marseille all his life and devoting himself to the portrayal of Provence and its distinctive cultural identity. His style remained his own and he seems not to have been influenced by the various artistic movements, schools and ‘isms’ that he saw come and go in his lifetime. He lived in Cassis for a couple of years in the early 1890’s and many canvases resulted including Trois voiliers au quai des Baux, 1893 (pictured here), Depuis le quai des Baux and Quai de la Consigne.
Edouard Crémieux (1856–1944) was a close friend of Garibaldi and his family home was in Cassis. He was a prolific painter of street-scenes, the harbourside and also of the surrounding countryside with a strong sense of local identity.
Jean Guindon (1883–1975) was born in Marseille and lived and worked in the area all his life and indeed he and his family moved to Cassis in 1923 and stayed for four years. From his work it is apparent that he was influenced by the Fauves and he also exchanged ideas with the many English artists who were in the town at the time. The picture shown is Port de Cassis.
Neo-Impressionism comes to town
Paul Signac (1863–1935) was a leading light in the Neo-Impressionist movement, originally inspired by the work of Georges Seurat, which sought to build upon the ideas of the Impressionists but also to push the understanding of light and colour by taking into account current scientific research into visual perception. In the early years the style was characterised by the use of small touches or points of pure colour placed adjacent to one another allowing them to be mixed in the eye of the beholder rather than on the palette. This is where the term pointilism originates. Signac made his first visit to the Mediterranean coast in 1887 when he stayed in Collioure, close to the Spanish border. In 1889 he was drawn southwards again this time to visit Van Gogh who was hospitalised in Arles. They visited the Yellow House together and Vincent gave Signac a small painting as a souvenir. Signac then moved on to Cassis and actually invited Van Gogh to join him but sadly he was in no state to take up the offer. What thrilling canvases may have resulted from such a liason can only be imagined.
Signac himself stayed for three months and produced a series of stunning works inspired the landscape and as he wrote to Van Gogh: “White, blue, and orange, harmoniously spread over the beautiful rise and fall of the land. All around, mountains and rythmic curves.” Unlike the painters of the Provençal School, Signac was not so much interested in capturing the atmosphere of the place through a depiction of its physical reality but more in using the landscape as a vehicle for his investigation of light and colour. The image shown here is Cassis, La Jetée. Apart from painting Signac’s other passion was for sailing and this part of the world offered him an ideal playground for indulging both. He would later settle a little further along the coast at Saint-Tropez where he lived and worked in the company of his fellow artists Henri Edmond Cross, Théo Van Rhysselberghe and Charles-Henri Person, a fellow sailing enthusiast, who also adopted the Neo-Impressionist style.
SELECTED PAINTINGS AND WHERE THEY MAY BE SEEN
If works mentioned in the text do not appear in the list they are in private collections.
Adolphe Monticelli Port de Cassis, 1884 (National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo/www.nmwa.go.jp)
Paul Signac Cassis, La Jetée, 1889 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York/ www.metmuseum.org)
Raphael Ponson (1835–1904) was born in Marseille and attended the art school there. He was an enthusiastic traveller in the region and many of his paintings are of marine subjects. He visited Cassis for almost thirty years from 1867 and captured the commercial activity of the busy port in many canvases including Le Port de Cassis (pictured here), Brick grec à Cassis and Le port et le Cap en majesté. The rocky inlets or calanques close to the town were another favourite subject.
Octave Gallian (1855–1918) was originally from Toulon but trained in Paris and is perhaps best known as a portraitist but his Port de Cassis of 1880 is an early depiction of the busy harbour.
Edouard Crémieux (1856–1944) was a close friend of Garibaldi and his family home was in Cassis. He was a prolific painter of street-scenes, the harbourside and also of the surrounding countryside with a strong sense of local identity.
Signac himself stayed for three months and produced a series of stunning works inspired the landscape and as he wrote to Van Gogh: “White, blue, and orange, harmoniously spread over the beautiful rise and fall of the land. All around, mountains and rythmic curves.” Unlike the painters of the Provençal School, Signac was not so much interested in capturing the atmosphere of the place through a depiction of its physical reality but more in using the landscape as a vehicle for his investigation of light and colour. The image shown here is Cassis, La Jetée. Apart from painting Signac’s other passion was for sailing and this part of the world offered him an ideal playground for indulging both. He would later settle a little further along the coast at Saint-Tropez where he lived and worked in the company of his fellow artists Henri Edmond Cross, Théo Van Rhysselberghe and Charles-Henri Person, a fellow sailing enthusiast, who also adopted the Neo-Impressionist style.
